8. Batman Returns (1992) (Marisa Carpico)

Why I Love It: Batman Returns is a comic book movie that doesn’t forget that its premise is ultimately ridiculous. Let’s not forget these characters willingly dress up as various animals every night to either fight or commit crime—they’re crazy weirdos. Director Tim Burton and especially production designer Bo Welch lean into that and deliver a film that’s a delicate balance of complex psychology and silly comic book fun.

This was before Burton became CGI-obsessed, so, this dirty, slightly cartoonish version of Gotham feels real and tactile, if slightly heightened. The same goes for the characters and the plot. Rogues like Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Penguin (Danny DeVito) could easily read as silly and they frequently do, but that’s part of the tone. Pfeiffer is fully committed to Selena Kyle’s insane sexuality just as DeVito is to Peguin’s grotesquery. Surprisingly, the most subdued performance outside of Michael Keaton’s as Batman is Christopher Walken as Max Shreck. The character is sinister and powerful where Penguin or Catwoman are big in their villainy. Perhaps that’s why the film doesn’t feel overloaded with villains in the way that, say, Spider-Man 3 does. There’s gradation there and all over the film and other comic book movies could learn a thing or two from the way it expertly manages to service a multitude of characters and storylines without letting any of them feel neglected.

Favorite Line:

“You know, mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it.”

“A kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it.”

—Catwoman and Batman and then later Bruce and Selena

Favorite Scene: Selena walking around her apartment post-feral cat resurrection. A major part of why it works so well is the way it contrasts with a similar scene of Selena coming home earlier in the film. The first is about what a sad, powerless spinster she is, the second is about taking control of her life and leaving that girl behind. She walks dazed through her shabby, off-pink apartment and replaces its cloying girlishness with darkness and sexual power. Pfeiffer plays the transformation with such a disturbed ferocity that it’s both unsettling and exciting to watch. The shot of Selena in full Catwoman garb, her movements suddenly languid and cat-like, silhouetted by a pink fluorescent sign that reads “Hell Here,” is the film’s best.

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